State, District Actions Address Bilingual Issues

Several school systems, citing practical and pedagogical reasons,
are introducing or contemplating changes in their bilingual-education
programs this fall.

The changes, in part, address such problems as a shortage of
bilingual teachers and concerns that pupils are not being mainstreamed
into English classrooms quickly enough.

In the Dallas Independent School District, administrators have
launched a new program that is expected to ease the burden on schools
with few bilingual teachers, while serving more
limited-English-proficient students.

Under the plan, schools with 100 or more lep students that do not
have enough certified bilingual educators will pair bilingual and
monolingual teachers to teach Spanish and English language-arts
lessons. The time spent on Spanish will decrease as students progress
through the grades. Other subjects will be taught in English, using
English-as-a-second-language methods.

In schools serving fewer than 100 l.e.p. students, all classes will
use the English-as-a-second-language approach.

By making better use of faculty resources, the plan will enable
Dallas to offer native-language classes to 10,000 l.e.p.
elementary-school students, twice the number served last year, said
Rosita Apodaca, an assistant superintendent of schools. The district
has an estimated 15,000 lep pupils in the elementary grades.

The state's bilingual-education law mandates that most instruction
in the early grades be in a student's native language, although the
state grants some exceptions to that requirement. (See story, this
page.)

Ms. Apodaca said that data showing "no marked difference" in test
scores of students who received greater and lesser amounts of
native-language instruction helped justify Dallas's approach to
educating lep pupils.

N.J. Exit Requirements

In New Jersey, meanwhile, a proposal to ease exit requirements for
students in bilingual education has drawn criticism from
bilingual-education advocates and a state ombudsman.

Under the plan recommended by Saul Cooperman, state commissioner of
education, students would8move out of bilingual education if they
passed a language-proficiency test. The current system requires that
such students also show mastery of basic skills and receive favorable
teacher evaluations.

The proposal was withdrawn from the agenda of the state board of
education this month, but the department is expected to resubmit the
plan after reviewing the opinion issued by the ombudsman.

Rolando Torres, an assistant deputy public advocate, charged that
the proposal was "unsupported by reasoned analysis" and could violate
the state's bilingual-education law.

Supporters say the plan would standardize exit rules across
districts and keep students from stayel10ling in bilingual classes
longer than necessary. Opponents contend it would prematurely push
students out of bilingual education and into costly remedial
programs.

Ofelia Oviedo, who chairs the state advisory committee on bilingual
education, warned: "We may be sending students into remediation when
the problem is that the skill of a new language has not really been
acquired. You don't punish the existing program by overburdening
compensatory education."

But Richard DiPatri, Mr. Cooperman's assistant for educational
programs, argued that the proposal was "based on research" that
students who pass the language test can be successfully mainstreamed.
If a student is behind in other skills, he added, "we say remediate
[those] skills."

Report in Boston

Concern that some students stay in bilingual classrooms too long
could also bring changes in the Boston school district's
bilingual-education program.

A report this fall by the Greater Boston Regional Education Center
said that more than 600 of the city's 7,800 lep students had remained
in bilingual programs for six years or more and that some were still
not ready for mainstream classes.

Boston officials currently are analyzing the data to see how much of
the problem is attributable to factors such as learning
disabilities.

The district's superintendent of schools, Laval S. Wilson, has
called for a pilot alternative program for "extended stay" bilingual
students. He has also recommended better monitoring and staffing and
other improvements in the bilingual program.

Spanish Requirement?

While other districts are reviewing the way they teach English to
immigrant students, the Dade County, Fla., schools are considering
requiring English-speaking students to learn Spanish.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph Fernandez has said he favors the
idea. He notes that 42 percent of the county's population is Hispanic
and that much of its business is conducted in Spanish.

While the district now requires all Hispanic elementary-school
students to study Spanish unless their parents "opt out," it offers
Spanish for non-Hispanic students in grades 2-6 only at the parents'
request. Mr. Fernandez said a proposal to begin that program in
kindergarten and require it unless parents opt out may come before the
school board in January.

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